"Gold is subject to a myriad of influences, and at the moment these are constantly shifting making it hard to trade," said a London-based broker.

At 0942 GMT, the spot price of gold was up 0.4% at $1,764.90 a troy ounce. The euro was also higher against the dollar, recovering sharp losses from earlier in the week.

A firmer euro versus the greenback sometimes helps to boost the metal, which is priced in dollars and therefore appears cheaper to buyers using other currencies.

Elsewhere, equities and other commodities were also mostly in positive territory as investor optimism over Italy and Greece, and that recent political developments may help the countries push ahead with austerity measures, helped to calm the markets.

While some analysts said gold remains vulnerable to a pullback, particularly as physical demand remains thin, others were more confident that buying near current levels would help send prices back toward $1,800/oz.

"We like to buy dips in gold near $1,750/oz for a move higher toward our target in the $1,840/oz area," Barclays Capital technical analysts said in a note.

The platinum group metals, or PGMs, were also trading higher Friday. Spot platinum was up 0.4% at $1,623.20/oz, while spot palladium was 0.7% higher at $649/oz.

"The PGMs remain on the defensive," said HSBC analyst James Steel. "We continue to view them as oversold but the metals give little impression they are about to rally," he added.

Spot silver was the only metal down on the day, trading 0.3% lower at $33.927/oz.

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